


a year cut short

by pandabrite



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, i was just supposed to write physical injury but i ended up killing a bunch of people, i'm going to expand on this later, shrug emoji, this is a bad cycle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 21:35:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12802869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandabrite/pseuds/pandabrite
Summary: what seems like a peaceful cycle for the IPRE crew is cut short by a devastating attack.





	a year cut short

**Author's Note:**

> day 18 of taz nanowrimo. the prompt was to write about being physically hurt, but instead i just killed people. so, there's that. i want to expand this into the story of barry and lup bonding over a particularly bad cycle. so, that'll happen eventually.

_… They were in trouble…_

\---

The Light of Creation was so _damn close._

When it landed within a day’s journey for them, that was a good cycle. An exciting cycle. A cycle of peace and a cycle of research and a cycle of _hope_. It was something that didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was a cause for fuckin’ celebration.

The plane they had ended up on had been a strange one already… a vastly forested land with sentient, living beings in heavily guarded villages near the outskirts of jungle that spread for miles. Overall, the land seemed peaceful. Tentative exploration of the terrain showed nothing outside of the norm for a tropical biome, aside from some flora and fauna that were unfamiliar to them. The natives were intelligent creatures, but they neither spoke their language nor tolerated the presence of these strange outsiders, so the crew stayed their distance. 

Morale had been overall low until the light descended and chanced to land so near to their location. But that light was a spark of determination.

When the team finally found it it was in an actually quite sparsely forested area. The faint glow of the Light radiated outward in waves, visible through the treeline and outward toward the sky.

Easy. Or, _well_ , so they had thought. 

It seemed so easy, in fact, that all seven of them touched down the ship in a clearing and began the short trek to collect their prize. A prize so hard fought for lately that they felt they had _earned_ this respite. They would collect the light and spend the rest of the cycle in _peace._

And that feeling was in short supply, lately. 

They were exuberant. Finally, a fucking moment of rest. 

And, strangely enough, the members leading the group into the woods weren’t the usual suspects. Magnus was normal, but Merle, Davenport and Taako heading the brigade, and not Magnus, Lup and Barry, was certainly strange.

But it was a welcome sort of strange. 

Lup, Barry and Lucretia hung back, strolling behind the four of their teammates by a few yards. They… well, they’d decided to be leisurely about this one. Lup, especially, had made the decision to let the other members of their team have a go at the light. She’d collected it many times alongside Barry. Why not let someone else have a turn?

The three of them chatted idly, Lucretia with a sketchbook propped on her arm, effortlessly jotting down the flora as she spoke, as she walked, scrawling quick sketches and noting everything that appeared in frequent supply. It was what she was good at after all, keeping track of everything around her.

Barry and Lup were close to each other, but not close enough to be touching, and they took up stride in front of their companion, maintaining the conversation as they strolled through the sparse forest.

The other four members of their group were just out of sight now. 

Lup was glad for it, if she were to be honest with herself. Taako wanting to head up a charge into an uncharted territory was a refreshing change. And while she knew it was rooted in desperation, and perhaps that wasn’t the most positive motivation, that he was doing _anything_ besides being miserable in his room, or moping around the Starblaster, was fantastic. 

He was struggling.

They _all_ were, to varying degrees. 

But this? This was easy. This was peaceful. They felt calm in their hearts for what felt like the first time in ages. Their toils were ceaseless, their struggles etched in the tiredness they felt in their bones… but this would be time to recuperate.

Magnus and company reached the Light a few paces before the other three. It was nestled in a tree stump in the center of a clearing… there was nothing around, no creatures to battle, no puzzles to solve, no beings to reason with. Nothing.

It was just there.

“ _Noooooiiiiiiice~_ ” Taako was the first person to get his hands on the glistening power… he was cheesing about it, too, a broader smile than any he’d worn lately.

“Easy,” Magnus nudged Taako’s elbow, “got it. Let’s head back to the ship and stash this bad boy so we can really have some fun.”

Merle and Davenport had hung back on the edge of the clearing, and they shared a look that read the same way to both of them-- that this was going to be a good cycle. A glimmer of hope in the darkness they’d struggled through the past few years.

Lup, Lucretia and Barry headed up the rear, and as they came into sight of the clearing, Lucretia froze without warning.

Lup was the first to notice her hesitation, “Yo, Lucy, you good?”

“... Lup, Barry, stop--”

Barry, who had moved ahead a few paces, did as he was instructed and stopped to look back, mouth drawing into a thin line.

Lucretia had a worried brow, and was thumbing through the pages of the sketchbook she’d been filling on their way to their destination.

“Something’s not right. The plants here, they’re not the same as any of the species we’ve passed so far… And-- look, right there--” she pointed, her arm moving in a circular motion at a ring of _brown_ around the edge of the clearing, “... it’s all _dead_.”

She seemed distressed enough that it certainly got Lup and Barry’s attention. They took one look at her expression and then whipped around to face Taako and the rest of the group who were in the clearing.

Lup stepped forward, “... Um, guys-- I think maybe we should keep on keepin’ on… something about this _stinks._ ”

And almost as soon as those words left her lips, something happened.

_Something bad_.

Merle sensed it as soon as he heard Lup say something was amiss-- and he was kicking himself for not sensing it sooner. The plants around them, the entirety of their surroundings, were _sick._ It was a perfect ring of dead plants, right around the edge of the clearing.

And Taako realized it, too, slowly-- that the last few times they had come across the light, it had been surrounded by creatures drawn to its thrall-- … and here? Well, there was fuckin’ nothing.

It should have been so painfully obvious before they’d even reached the light, but, fuck, their exuberance had led them to a lack of attention, their eagerness to collect it so easily had caused an arrogance to fall over the lot of them. 

This was a mistake.

“Oh, _howsabout fuck this_ \--” Taako instantly tried to pass the light over to Magnus, who fumbled with it for a second. And Taako was outski. He retreated immediately toward Lup, but before he got outside the circle of the clearing…

The ground lurched.

Taako stumbled. Magnus drew his weapons. Merle and Davenport stepped back, outside the ring.

And the ground beneath them snapped upward. Like a _bear trap_. Davenport, with reflexes akin to lightning, jerked forward and snatched Taako with enough time to pull him out of harm’s way-- but Magnus. Oh, Magnus wasn’t so lucky.

The ground had twisted itself into a mouth, a great maw full of many teeth, that tore through the soil in tarnished spikes. And Magnus, who was holding the light, who was dead center in the ring of this trap… was crushed in them. 

A sickening squelch filled the air as his life was abruptly ended. 

A wave of despair and panic washed over rest of them. 

Davenport shook his head, “Guys-- Guys, we gotta go. _Go. GO!_ ” 

And they booked it. Lup grabbed Lucretia and ushered her in the front, and Barry took up stride beside her. Taako, Davenport and Merle hurried along behind them.

But not for long.

The great mouth that had erupted from the ground continued to rise, and from the pit of the clearing rose a monster. A great, hulking beast of spiny, black skin. It was mostly mouth, but trailing up and along its sides were tendrils that stretched into the forest around them…

And those tendrils were already hunting. Before their feet had carried them more than a few feet.

The monster’s tendrils darted through the forest after its retreating prey. And the six of them weren’t fast enough, especially not the three who trailed behind, the three who’d made the mistake to get too close in the first place.

Out of the darkness Merle was snatched, and then Davenport. The two smallest and easiest to grab. They didn’t even get a chance to scream or react as they were silenced, pounded into the ground, into the trees, and then drug away.

“Oh-- fuck-- Sonofabitch-- _Lup-_ ” Taako picked up his pace, and at the sound of her brother’s distress, Lup looked back--

And the tendrils of the monster were right upon him.

“TAAKO!” Lup skid to a halt, flames already licking her hands… she was ready to fight-- even though she should run. She should get away… 

“Shit, no--” Barry could see what was about to happen before it came to pass. He rushed forward, and before Lup could respond, he slapped a hand over her eyes. She didn’t need to see what was about to happen to Taako, to her brother.

Because even if she tried to fight. Even if she rushed in, guns blazing, it was too late. There was no stopping his fate, not this time… 

Tendrils had already caught him. They twisted around his throat, his upper arms, his waist… and with devastating force, they _tore him apart._ He was not even granted the luxury of a scream. 

The last sight burned into Lup’s gaze was the look of absolute horror that had flashed across Taako’s face as he came to the same realization as the rest of them… that it was _too late._

Lucretia’s breath was shaky, but her hands tightly grasped Barry and Lup’s arms from behind, “If we don’t go, if we get caught, that’s it-- we’re fucking done. We’ve got to _go!_ ” 

And she didn’t wait for them.

_She couldn’t._

Lucretia left them. She turned away from the two remaining members of the team and sprinted off. It was the fastest she had ever run. Because if she didn’t get away, if none of them got away-- that was it, there was no resetting, there was no trying again, there was no bringing anyone back from this sudden nightmare. 

Barry drug Lup from where she was rooted, his own face pale, panicked… and Lup was limp, dead weight.

“Lup, _Lup_ , c’mon-” 

Taako’s hat fluttered by, propelled by a strong wind that kicked up around them. As soon as Lup saw it, as soon as she sighted it drift by, she snatched it out of the air and clutched it to her chest. 

“ _Fuck._ ”

She grabbed Barry’s hand and she took off after Lucretia. 

They had no choice.

They’d been cut down in number so swiftly.

Luck was on their side in a way, as the beast that had been pursuing them was now distracted by the prey it had caught… the stragglers that escaped were of little interest.

The three remaining members of the IPRE team practically threw themselves into the Starblaster. Lucretia fell to her knees, a hand clutched her chest as she gasped for breath…

Lup slumped back against the now shut hatch, Taako’s hat held between her fingers in a vicegrip. 

And Barry sunk to the floor, unceremoniously taking a seat, gaze focused far away.

This plane. This land they’d descended upon… it had fooled them all. They were lulled into a false sense of security, and now they were paying dearly for it. Their numbers had been cut in one fell swoop by a beast that had tricked them with the Light.

Lup was the first of the three to make a move. She pushed herself off of the door and slid Taako’s hat onto her head, “... I’m gonna… Go, uh, chill for a bit.” Her voice was far away-- a familiar, but heart crushing, reaction to losing her brother in a cycle.

Neither Barry nor Lucretia were inclined to stop her… 

And that year? That cycle?

For the three of them...

Was a particularly _bad_ one.


End file.
